Accreditation Canada is important in improving patient safety in the Canadian health care system (Accreditation Canada, 2009, p. 3). This is accomplished through the Qmentum accreditation program, which began in 2008 (Accreditation Canada, 2009, p. 3). The components of the program include quality dimensions, national standards of excellence, required organizational practices, and performance measures (Accreditation Canada, 2009, p. 3). For example, through accreditation of required organizational practices (ROP), Accreditation Canada is able to pinpoint which ROPs organizations are compliant with and which ones are unmet (Accreditation Canada, 2009, p. 6). According to Accreditation Canada (2009), ROPs are “evidence based practices that mitigate
risk and contribute to improving the quality and safety of health care practices” (p. 4). Some examples of ROPs are hand hygiene education and training as well as pneumococcal vaccine administration compliance (Accreditation Canada, 2009, p. 4). This also allows the analyzing of data across different organizations, such as the higher rates of vaccination compliance noted in long term care versus home care (Accreditation Canada, 2009, p. 6). If ROP requirements are not met, the organization must provide proof to Accreditation Canada how they are attending to these unmet ROPs (Accreditation Canada, 2009, p. 4). Accreditation Canada also uses many other tools and surveys in order to assess the quality of the Canadian health care system, with the goal of improving health care quality and patient safety (Accreditation Canada, 2009, p. 19).
State and federal regulations, national accreditation standards, and clinical practice standards are created, and updated regularly. In addition, to these regulations, OIG publishes a compliance work plan annually that focuses on protecting the integrity of the program, and prevention of fraud and abuse. The Office of the Inspector General examines quality‐of‐care issues in nursing facilities, organizations, community‐based settings and occurrences in which the programs may have been billed for medically unnecessary services. The Office of the Inspector General’s work plan for the fiscal year 2011 highlights five areas of investigation for acute care hospitals. Reliability of hospital-reported quality measure data, hospital readmissions, hospital admissions with conditions
Dr. Molloy, owner of Medi-Exam Health Services (MEHS), has a seemingly “good problem” within his medical practice. Based on an income statement for the month of August, MEHS had profited $4,000 more than estimated by the profitgraph put together by his accountant. Although this may seem okay due the nature of estimation that comes with profitgraph analysis, Dr. Molloy needs to investigate and understand the root of the discrepancy between the outputs.
Introduction “Health informatics is the science that underlies the academic investigation and practical application of computing and communications technology to healthcare, health education and biomedical research” (UofV, 2012). This broad area of inquiry incorporates the design and optimization of information systems that support clinical practice, public health and research; understanding and optimizing the way in which biomedical data and information systems are used for decision-making; and using communications and computing technology to better educate healthcare providers, researchers and consumers. Although there are many benefits of bringing in electronic health systems there are glaring issues that associate with these systems. The
The standards of the Joint Commission are a foundation for an objective evaluation process the may help healthcare organizations measure, assess and improve performance. These standards are focused on organizational functions that are key for providing safe high quality care services. The Joint Commission’s standards set goal expectations of reasonable, achievable and surveyable performance of an organization. Only new standards that are relative to patient safety or care quality, have positive impact on healthcare outcomes, and can be accurately measured are added. Input from healthcare professionals, providers, experts, consumers and government agencies develop these standards.
The current focus on new healthcare models is a reaction to long-standing concerns around quality, cost, and efficiency. Accountable Care Organizations model focus on integrated healthcare to promote accountability and improve outcomes for the health of a defined population. The goal of integrated healthcare is to ensure that patients, especially the chronically ill, get the right care at the right time, while avoiding unnecessary duplication of services and preventing medical errors (CMS, 2014). The following paper will analyze an ACO’s ability to change healthcare in the United States.
Merwin, E & Thornlow, D. (2009). Managing to improve quality: the relationship between accreditation standards, safety practices, and patient outcomes. Health Care Managment Review, 34(3), 262-272. DOI: 10.1097/HMR.0b013e3181a16bce
The purpose of this paper is to identify a quality safety issue. I will summarize the impact that this issue has on health care delivery. In addition, I will identify quality improvement strategies. Finally, I will share a plan to effectively implement this quality improvement strategy.
Risk management is the system in which companies assess potential liabilities within an organization (Raso, Gulinello, 2011). Through this process information is gathered, assessed, and implemented to avoid these potential risk. Risk managers are beneficial to their organizations because not only do they save money but they can also save lives. In the hospital setting where mistakes can cost someone their lives, risk managers work to develop protocols to help prevent human error. Information is gathered through the process of evidence based practice as well as guidelines in place by best practice. Not only do they help protect the lives of the patients within the facilities, they are also responsible for ensuring staff safety. A risk manager’s responsibility is multi-faceted and complex. They will prevent potential litigations by implementing patient safety protocols, reduce risk to associates, and reduce cost to the organizations.
O’Daniel, M., & A.H., R. (2008). Patient Safety and Quality: An Evidence-Based Handbook for Nurses. Rockville: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Retrieved from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK2637/
Thus, it is imperative that evidence-based practice is conducted to provide the best current, valid and reliable evidence in an aim to close the gap between non-conformity and coincide with the professional obligation of providing the patient with the best possible care (Liamputtong, 2013).... ... middle of paper ... ... Patient safety and quality of care. Rockville, MD: Agency For Healthcare Research And Quality, U.S. Dept. of Health.
Mitchell, P. H. (2008). Defining patient safety and quality care an evidence-based handbook for nurses. Rockville,Maryland: Hughes. DOI: //www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK2681/
Good leadership, fostering a culture of change and safety, team work are essential in implementing quality improvement and risk management in the organization. Leaders and the governing body must demonstrate commitment to the processes and define their expectations for all stakeholders. Leadership team should make sure that the team’s attention is focused on the core business of the organization, which is to provide care and treat patients in a safe and high quality clinical environment. There are different tools that can be used for quality improvement that also applies to analyzing risk issues. These are measurement of quality, benchmarking, RCA, FMECA, and so
The first nurse to introduce quality improvement was Florence Nightingale, who through gathering data on the positive effects of keeping adequate hygiene, nutrition and proper ventilation on the mortality rate during the Crimean War (Hood, 2014, p. 490-491). The initiatives towards improvement of quality lead to formation the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Hospitals (JCAH), which is now known as The Joint Commission (2007). The Joint Commission is non-profit organization which gives accreditation to hospitals for recognizing their efforts to deliver quality health care with an added advantage of being eligible for the Medicare reimbursement program. Moreover, the Joint Commission also rolled out the Hospital Patient Safety Goals (2013) to prevent patient safety errors. Nursing professionals are essential for health care organizations to achieve and maintain the patient-safety goals as their work directly impacts the quality and safety of the patients. For instance, using two patient identifiers during medication administration to avert errors. Nurses have the distinct skills and responsibility towards patient safety and hence the need for Quality and Safety Education for Nurses (QSEN) is the rational step towards quality improvement. Through the years, the QSEN has developed in Phases to ascertain the areas of competency requirements for nurses to deliver safe, efficient and excellent health care
Total quality management is “a system of management based on the principle that every staff member must be committed to maintaining high standards of work in every aspect of a company 's operations” (citation). There are eight key principles to consider when discussing TQM: customer focused organization, leadership, involvement of people, process approach, system approach to management, continual improvement, factual approach to decision making, and mutually beneficial supplier relationships. A customer focused organization is when organizations depend on their customers, they try to understand current and future customer needs, try to meet customer requirements, and make a huge effort to exceed customer expectations.
...n of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO), and the American Medical Accreditation Program (AMAP), just to name a couple. Each of the accrediting bodies is unique in terms of their mission, activities, compositions of their boards, and organizational histories, and each develops their own accreditation process and programs and sets their own accreditation standards. . "Accreditation of a health care facility or program is a symbol of quality, similar to the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval that indicates to the public that the organization or program has met certain standards." (Goode, 2001) The accreditation proves that healthcare facility underwent the accreditation process and met all of the necessary requirements to become qualified. Accreditation has been generally viewed as a desirable process to establish standards and work toward achieving higher quality care.